Doorbells traditionally announce the arrival of a visitor. Often times, the visitor is arriving to pick a specific object up. The resident while waiting for the visitor may walk around with the object in hand and then may accidentally misplace it and thus could take time to reach the door because the desired item cannot be found. If singing carolers or trick-or-treaters, for example, arrive at a home, and the resident in anticipation has the treat bowl in hand but then puts the bowl down to answer the phone or tend to other matters and then cannot find the treat bowl in time, the visitors may leave. Another example is if a resident is waiting for the delivery of food or a package and needs to pay the visitor in cash or a check, they may spend too much time looking for their wallet or checkbook while the delivery visitor waits at the door. Another example is an office setting where, for example, there is a conference room full of documents and boxes and the employee has the latest draft in hand. The employee may put the document down and it may get lost in a sea of boxes of documents. When an executive arrives at the entrance of the conference room demanding the latest draft of a document, the employee may spend too much time looking for the desired document. There is a need for a system where upon the arrival of a visitor, a resident can efficiently find a desired object that is misplaced and greet the visitor with the object in hand.
Furthermore, if the resident is not home when the visitor arrives, there are limited options for leaving items such as keys, documents or a check, for a visitor. Larger buildings tend to have a concierge allowing the resident to leave items with the concierge for easy pick up. There is a need for a device that allows residents of homes and smaller buildings to leave items meant for visitors that can be found by visitors in an efficient manner upon arrival.
There are doorbells which comprise a fixed transmitter and a fixed receiver and monitor the arrival of visitors. The monitor station also comprises a means to communicate with the visitor. Such systems have standard receivers; anything from wall mounted to animated character units, that are meant to remain stationary. Their primary task is to make an audible, and sometimes visual cue to the occupant that someone is at the door. These receivers are passive. These systems do not allow residents to walk around with the receiver that is coupled to an object as the receivers are not designed to be moveable.
There are doorbells that allow residents to leave prerecorded messages for visitors and also allow visitors to leave recorded messages. These doorbells do not assist residents in finding items meant to be given to visitors, nor allow residents to leave items for visitors when they are not home.
Another disadvantage of traditional doorbells is when younger, shorter visitors arrive on festive occasions such as holidays or birthday parties they cannot locate or reach the traditional doorbell. Thus, there is a need for a doorbell that is interactive so that younger visitors can be entertained and also locate the doorbell. There is a further need for a doorbell that can be installed at various heights and also be decorative to enhance the mood of the festivities. Moreover, when residents decorate the front of their homes for a party or holiday, they usually purchase new decorations for each holiday. Thus, there is a need for a decorative doorbell that can be used all year round for different festive occasions so that the resident would not have to buy a different decorative doorbell for each occasion.
There are item locating devices comprising a transmitter and a plurality of receivers. These item locators do not have a fixed transmitter and thus the transmitter can be misplaced as well. These devices also do not provide a simple way of attaching and removing the receivers multiple times to and from an object. Thus there is a need for a system where the transmitter will not be misplaced and also where the receiver can be switched to various objects.
There is nothing in the art that cures all of these deficiencies and provides a user a simple way of locating an object in an efficient manner upon the arrival of a visitor.